Too Young
by Helvetica Black
Summary: The other guys don't understand. They keep saying they do — they have imprinted too, after all — but they really don't understand. Their circumstances are different. They're all either older than or the same age as the girls they imprinted on. Oh, they just don't understand...


**A/N: Yes, yes, I know, I know. My first wolfy fic (and it's an imprint fic too,) and it just has to be about Collin. And yes, I actually do know that he's "only-thirteen-years-old-you-fucking-pedo", so don't go off on a cussing episode on how much of a perv I am, because I ****_honestly_**** find this (nonexistent) pairing adorable as hell.**

**PS: Please don't notify the authorities.**

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**The things I hated were actually really simple.**

Squeaky doors. Gum that's been chewed for too long. Imprinting.

They said imprinting was simple — that it was the most "basic and instinctual" event that could ever happen to a wolf, whatever "instinctual" meant. They said imprinting was so simple that it didn't even have to be explained.

_Simple_.

It's the _simple_ things that I hated the most, because those things were never really simple.

Sam, Jared, and even Quil, all of them had it easy. They only stared at the girls, imprinted on them, and now they were all running off into the sunset every chance they got.

Sam imprinted on Emily, and that ended up fine, except there's Sam's ex-girlfriend Leah, who ended up being really bitter about it. But Leah got better at dealing with it, so we all knew that it was going to work out fine. Jared imprinted on Kim, and they ended up okay. Then there's Quil. He imprinted on Claire, and though Claire was practically still a baby, which totally made Quil's imprinting on her look so messed up, that was just fine, somehow, because Quil could be whatever Claire needed. And at two, Claire didn't need a romantic interest. She needed an uncle-ish, brother-ish Quil. A Quil that would play with her and take her on fun walks on the beach where she could make sand castles. And so that's what Quil became. A playmate and babysitter. I saw him laugh a lot recently, and he seemed content.

Imprinting. So simple.

I knew imprinting didn't have to be a romantic thing. Not if the imprint wasn't ready for it to be one. I saw how Quil looked at Claire, and it's not with lust or anything pedo-like at all. He said he's gonna wait for her to be ready. That was easy, because Claire wasn't even aware of _that_ kind of stuff yet anyway. Romance, I mean. The imprint-thingy tailored Quil to match her. When Claire's ready for a boyfriend and all that, Quil would begin to see her in a different way. He would love her all the same, but he'd love her the way she needed, when she's ready for it.

For everyone else, imprinting just came so... naturally. Imprinting wasn't supposed to be difficult. After all, it only happened between soulmates, and what could possibly go wrong between soulmates?

I'd seen Quil and Claire's relationship. Age didn't matter when it came to imprints. It wasn't supposed to matter.

But what if it's a reverse of Quil and Claire's situation? What if it's the imprint who's ready for a romantic relationship? What if the imprint was old enough for it, and it's the wolf who was too young?

I didn't mean to imprint on her. I know nobody ever meant to imprint on anyone, but I _really_ didn't mean to imprint on her. I wasn't picky with girls, but I just didn't want _her_.

She was too old for me. She was married. She had a daughter who looked about my age. She was the one Jake used to be crazy about, before he became all about her daughter. And as if I didn't have enough grief yet, she was also the enemy.

Well, there you have it. The wolf's out of the bag. I imprinted on the enemy.

It all boils down to one question: Who did I imprint on?

Or the more important question: What did I imprint on?

I imprinted on a vampire. Bella Cullen, more specifically.

So yeah. You understand now that I especially, _especially_ didn't want _her_.

Until, you know, suddenly I just did.

How did that even work? It's not my first time seeing Bella since I first phased. Weren't imprints supposed to be imprinted on when you see them for the first time? Was there such a thing as a delayed imprint?

I closed my eyes and remembered the day I imprinted on her.

_She comes over to talk to Sam, and I just happen to be there because there's a meeting between our pack and Jake's. Everyone's there. She comes through Emily's door and then I see her. I look into her golden eyes, and then everything's suddenly about her. I breathe because she 's there to make my lungs work. I exist to be her match. Her brother, friend, or her lover, it doesn't matter._

_"Why so glum?" Jake asks her jokingly. "Trouble in paradise?" He hugs her tightly, and something in me makes me rise from my seat and growl._

_"Stand down, Collin," Sam warns, his voice quiet with authority. "Bella's a friend of the pack."_

_Sam doesn't understand. I'm not growling because I don't want Bella around. I'm growling because another male, Jacob Black, is acting so intimate with her. With my imprint. But of course, how could I say something like that while surrounded by shapeshifters with major anger management issues?_

_'I hate to shock you with the impossibility of this, but I imprinted on Bella Cullen.'_

_Yeah, right. There's no way I'd tell Sam that. She may be a friend of the pack, but vampires are still the enemy species. Cullens are even more off-limits. It's bad enough that Jacob Black imprinted on Bella Cullen's halfie daughter. Jacob's the Alpha of his own pack anyway, which makes his imprinting none of Sam's business. But I'm in Sam's pack. Sam would pitch a fit if he knew I imprinted on a Cullen. Even being the kid that I am, I know that imprinting on Bella Cullen could only mean trouble for the pack and the treaty._

_Sam hates trouble, and I like my head on my shoulders, so I remain silent._

_The goddess, Bella, turns her gaze on me, and my breath catches in my throat. She's looking at me strangely, like I have a third nostril. Then, she smiles. The toothy smile that I usually hate seeing on vampires, actually looks beautiful on her. Divine, even._

_She pulls herself away from Jake and walks towards me, and her vampiric smell, which is supposed to disgust me, only draws me in. Her cool hand lands on my hair and I try not to make any weird noises. My eyes are shut tight with the effort._

_I hear her laugh softly as she musses my hair. "You've grown, Collin."_

I felt a weird pressure between my legs, and I looked down at my... at my _thing_. A sound escaped my throat. It was happening again. Of course. Thinking about her always made my thing stiff. I stared at the tiles on the bathroom floor in frustration.

Of all the times this could have happened, why did it have to be when I'm taking a dump?


End file.
